Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-13
A NAN OF MAGIC.
Hm1orwaxaen fer Those Wishing
- Learn Slcsght-ef.Hand.

1nAoRWaxaen FER Those Wishing
- learn SAcight-ef.Hand.
l[ilitiaman John A. Schultz, the
oenial ccoiuror Of the English regi-
ment, had Just produced the pleasing
Illusion that the reporters hat was
savings bank by apparently abstract
ing from the lining several crisp bank
no1es. half Dozen five-dollar gold
pieccs and quantity of silver dimes
and quarters, when the reporter seized
the opportunity and fired questions
utxaieht at him without any delay
whatever.
"Well, said Militiaman Schultz,
with Q smile, las magicians are good
People to have around, and as the
more good people there are around in
the world the better it will become, i
don't mind giving you the secret that
will increase our number. The first
tip Is to go straight to some good
magician and take lessons in the art
direct from him. Books of instruc-
tion are useful only after the first
principles of the art are mastered.
"When you can palm and pass
things 30 that you can fool all the
smart small boy and all the smarter
grown up folks in your house and in
the family next door, you're ready to
90 ahead in your career as profess
sionsl deceiver of your fellow man.
The next step in that career is to get
magical apparatus. That's the way
globes of gold fishes and dishes Of
blazing oil and other startling things
are produced from empty pocket
handkerchiefs. It was by mechan-
ical devices that Robert Heller was
able to take out of mans hat
. cart load of fruit jars, piles of tea
candies, innumerable lighted Chinese
lanterns, about a ton Of rubber balls
and wooden blocks, a wardrobe of
clothes, pyramid of dishes, and fin
ally the bright little girl who used to
run down laughing to a seat among
the spectators. When it comes to the
apparatus you can go it economically,
or you can revel in the luxuriant
expenditure of prolific income. Magi-
cal outfits range in cost all the way
from 500 up into the thousands. A
good amateur, unless he wants to con-
fine himself exclusively to card tricks,
can't possibly get along in a parlor
entertainment without center table.
These range in cost from abont $25 to
$500, according to finish and the num-
Der Of traps and things intended to
produce the startling effects that
demonstrate to your smart spectator
that he isn't as smart as he thinks
he is.
OTHER NEEDED ARTICLES.
"After you get your table the rest of
your outlay is for mechanical tricks
the first thing, of course, to procure
being your conjurer's wand and a
trick tube pistol, into which you can
load things that you have smashed to
flinders and want to reproduce whole.
There are several kinds of wands.
One sort will float in the air, another
you can made disappear down your
throat, and another will fish silver half
dollars from the empty air for you.
Then you will want glass boxes that
look empty until you want them to
be full Of curious things; cardcases for
making cards disappear, and to cut up
other queer antics with; the mex
haustible bottle, time-honored chest
nut of trick, but perennially inter
esting to the children; magic bird
cages, money chests, and lots OF other
paraphernalia. In all there are over
200 pieces of apparatus for standard
tricks, from the simple tiny rubber
bottle that bObs up persistently. until
the conjuror tells it to lie down, to
the apparatus that will enable you to
safely cut off the head of your best
friend among the spectators"
Hilitiaman Schultz stopped for
breath when he had piled all this
mystic lore upon the reporters head,
and gave the scribe a chance to talk
on his own account.
Tremendous! the reporter said,
"and what did you say il would cost
to learn it all?"
II didn't say yet" retorted the mil
itiaman, who can do over 800 strange,
bewildering and incomprehensible
deeds of diablerie-'I didn't say yet,
but I'm going to tell you now. You
or any body else can learn to become
q magician of varying excellence by
paying from $25 to $500 to any one OF
the pupils whom Hermann or Heller
has kindly taught. For $25 you can
learn q select few good tricks, but for
1900 probably, or 5000 at the outside,
you can get training that will enable
you to do everything that anybody
who doesn't want the earth would care
to perform.
"The conjurer must be good talker
and funny one at that. By saying
funny things and being perfectly cool
1t all times he can travel smoothly
along with every trick. 1t is neces-
sary in great many good tricks to
talk away at the spectators to give
them the impression that you are ex-
planning what you are going to do,
when in reality you only want to mis-
lead them. The man who talks we'll
and entertainingly can accomplish his
purpose readily. Whoever saw Heller,
for instance, was delighted as much
by his bright talk almost as by the
tricks he did. If trick is successfully
performed the wise conjurer will not
repeat it again that night. The wise
conjuror will also keep his spectators
some distance from his conjuring
tables, and, above all, if he blunders,
he will never allow the blunder to
confuse him, but will cleverly pretend
that it was an effect that he purposely
intended to produce. The conjuror
can never aford to be in too much OF a
hurry either. He wants to be dead
sure that he is going ahead with GER
tainty. Magic, in short, is one of
those things in which you have to
hasten slowly.